My personal blog about international trade, public policy & politics, pop culture, and stuff that probably interests only me

Friday, September 21, 2012

Upcoming Event on Global Subsidies (and Free Food & Drink!) [UPDATED]

The Cato Institute will be hosting me and the Washington Examiner's excellent Tim Carney to talk about my new paper and the ridiculously awful state of US and global subsidy policy. Event details are below, and you can register here. Look forward to seeing you there!

You've heard of Solyndra, Government Motors, and the tens of billions of dollars transferred annually from U.S. taxpayers to America's wealthy agribusinesses—including the occasional farmer living in Manhattan. Worldwide, government subsidies to chosen industries and favored companies are out of control, bankrupting treasuries, breeding cronyism, misdirecting and deterring private investment, distorting market signals, and undermining support for capitalism and free trade. Always demanding more, domestic subsidy recipients cite foreign subsidies as grounds for yet more largesse, and the cycle continues. How will this global subsidies race end? "Very badly," according to experts who argue that policymakers must find a way to rein in this economically and politically corrosive process.

UPDATE: Trade lawyer John Magnus has just been added to the speaker list for the event. Now the event promises to be even more entertaining (as if that were even possible).